Post on 26-Dec-2015
Moen Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity 1
Reusing & Repurposing Learning Objects
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Issues of Granularity in the Texas Course Redesign Repository
William E. Moen<william.moen@unt.edu>
Texas Center for Digital Knowledge
University of North TexasDenton, Texas
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
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Texas course redesign project
• Statewide initiative, funded by Texas legislature
• Original RFP requested proposals:– To redesign developmental and entry-level
academic courses – To develop other related projects that would
advance the statewide course redesign initiative
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Texas courses being redesigned
• 23 redesign projects in development including:– Developmental writing, reading, and mathematics– Biology I & II, Chemistry I & II– College Algebra, Calculus, Math for Business & Social
Science Majors, Statistics– Computer Literacy– English Composition I & II– Fine Arts Appreciation– Introduction to Engineering– Spanish– U.S. Government – U.S. History I & II
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Redesigning first year curriculum
Core Curriculum Component Area Redesigned Courses
Communication English Composition, Spanish
Mathematics Algebra, Calculus, Statistics
Natural Science Biology I & II, Chemistry I & II
Humanities/Visual & Performing Arts Fine Arts Appreciation
Social/Behavioral Science U.S. History I & II, Government I
Institutionally Designated Option Computer Literacy
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The learning object repository
• Two phase project– Phase I: Proof-of-Concept (May 07–Sept 07)
• How course content can be decomposed into discrete learning objects (LOs)
• How LOs can be individually described through metadata• How users can use the LOR to search, browse, retrieve, and
download LOs• How LOs can be packaged to import into learning management
systems
– Phase II: Research & Development (Sept 07–Aug 09)• Moving towards a near-production level system
• Primary means to disseminate redesigned coursesFor more information, see project website: http://thecblor.unt.edu
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THECB LOR components
• Repository platform: DSpace– Stores the LOs and metadata describing each– Provides authenticated user interface for submission of
LOs and creation of metadata– Provides public user interface for searching, browsing,
access– Manakin XML user interface tool
• Course content and learning objects– Our definition of a LO: A digital resource (simple or
complex) that can be used to support learning
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THECB LOR components
• Metadata– Serves in managing the repository’s content– Serves users to:
• Find (searching and discovering LOs)• Identify (comparing similar LOs)• Select (evaluating LOs for specific needs)• Access/Acquire (downloading selected LOs)
– Using metadata elements from two standards:• Dublin Core• IEEE Learning Object Metadata• Approximately 40 elements
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Context for THECB LOR
• Courses and course content – Developed by separate projects – No standard or common logical structure
• Quality of content – Competitive grant process for redesigned courses
• Intended audience– Instructors/instructional designers at public institutions of
higher education in Texas
• Intellectual property – Belongs to Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
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Basic organization of LOR
• Discipline (e.g. History)–Sub-discipline (e.g., U.S History)
• Courses (e.g., U.S. History I, U.S. History II)
–Course content (Collections of learning objects at varying levels of granularity)
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From courses to LOs
• Courses not designed in terms of:– Learning objects– Storage in a repository
• Challenges:– How to decompose complete course into
meaningful LOs– How to decide on levels of granularity– How to represent such levels– How to show relationships among/between
related LOs at different levels of granularityReusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity 11
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U.S. History I Course
• Structure as designed:– Course
• Units (four Units in Course)– Lessons (two or more lessons per Unit)
» Topics (two or more topics per Lesson)
• Structure served to guide levels of granularity
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U.S. History I Course
• Other course components as designed– Case studies– Teacher and student guides– Assessments (primarily at the Lesson level)
• Free-standing learning objects– Derived from course content– Have value outside the context for which they
were created– Interactive flash animations, video clips, etc.
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Characterizing LOs
• Netg– Topic: single learning objective, a learning activity, and an
assessment
• Cisco– Reusable Information Object: content items, practice
items, and assessment items aimed at single learning objective
• SCORM Content Package– Sharable Content Objects packaged together in larger
units of learning related to learning objectives
• IMS Learning Design– Learning Object: object needed to perform an activity
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Assumptions for the THECB LOR
• Users may be in need of different sized LOs• No common logical structure for courses• No common terminology across courses for labeling
structural components of course• Different courses may dictate different levels of
granularity• Context for some LOs more important than others• Our definition of a LO:
– A digital resource (simple or complex) that can be used to support learning
– Not tied to specific learning objectives
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Spanish course
• Course content consists of:– Introductory web page– Podcast
• Organized by topics, subtopics, specific topics e.g.– Verbs
• Present tense– Present tense AR– Present tense ER/IR– Present tense Irregulars
– Nouns, articles, adjectives and agreement• Articles
– Definite and indefinite articles
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Developmental writing course
• Course content consists of:– Web pages of textual information– Assessments and activities
• Organized into:– Categories
• Lessons– Topics
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LOs at multiple levels of granularity
The Russian Doll Approach
Separate learning objects are created at all levels: course, lesson, topic, page, page element (media), with each level contained in the one above it.
G.W. Matkin
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Russian Doll in context of courses
History• Topic LOs
– Topics aggregated in a lesson
• Lesson LOs– Lessons
aggregated in a unit
• Unit LOs– Units aggregated
into course level
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Writing• Topic LOs
– Topics aggregated in a lesson
• Lesson LOs– Lessons
aggregated in a category
• Category LOs– Categories
aggregated into course level
Spanish• Specific topic LOs
– Specific topics aggregated in a subtopic
• Subtopic LOs– Subtopics
aggregated in a topics
• Topic LOs– Topics aggregated
into course level
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This approach…
• Addresses our lack of knowledge of granularity levels appropriate for intended users
• Offers LOs at multiple levels of granularity• Provides a testbed for empirical investigation
BUT … lots of challenges, including:• Terminology for levels of granularity• Use of metadata to describe/represent levels of granularity• Use of metadata to show relationships (part of, is part of)• Addressing sequencing and context where that is important
I’ll appreciate your ideas and suggestions!
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References
• Disaggregation and reutilization of sharable content objects. Figuerua, A. & Kaufmann, M.
• Learning object repositories: Problems and promise. Matkin, G.W.
• Transforming existing content into reusable learning objects. Doorten, M., et al.
• THECB LOR Project: http://thecblor.unt.edu
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